Doctors hail phytomedicine but say it's no cure for all diseases

Hyderabad: “Nature cures, not the physician,” said Hippocrates, considered the father of medicine. Phytomedicine (those that are plant-based) are mostly looked upon as an alternative to synthetic drugs to avoid side effects and also minimise drug costs.

Health experts warn that users should differentiate between a combination of herbal ingredients that are most likely to have heavy metals and natural home-made remedies.

Practitioners of natural medicine say that the modern medical system treats the symptoms and suppresses the disease, but does little to treat the real cause.

They claim that phytomedicines can be used for the treatment of everything — from the common cold and cough to diabetes and cancer. Plants, like aloe vera and neem, are used to treat diabetes mellitus.

Practitioners of modern medicine differ from this view. Diabetologist  Dr Pola Pramod of the RV Centre for Diabetes, Hyderabad, said, “We don’t prescribe this for diabetic patients.

The general principle is that aloe vera and neem are high in fibre and therefore beneficial. But we recommend taking a high fibre diet. And the other benefits claimed for aloe vera and neem are not scientifically proven.”

Leaves of the radish (mullangi, snake gourd (potlakaya) and papaya; barley water; ginger; and the Indian gooseberry or amla are useful natural remedies in treating jaundice.

Vijayawada-based gastroenterologist Dr Paladugu Harikrishna said, “Many of the medicines used in allopathy are plant-based. These so-called ‘herbal medicines’, propagated on social media or the Internet, are suspected to contain heavy metals that cause harm to the body, or recommending herbal juices for the treatment of jaundice is false propaganda. Jaundice is actually a symptom, pointing to the incidence of typhoid, malaria, Heptatis-A, dengue, gall bladder infection, fatty liver, alcoholism or cancer. There is a need to treat the disease, not the symptom.”

A phytomedicine, like Triphala, gets acceptance from modern medical practitioners too. It is an old natural medical combination used in Ayurveda by mixing black myrobalan (Terminalia chebula), belleric myrobalan (Terminalia belarica) and amla (Emblica officinalis).

Dr K. Soma Shekara Rao, senior consultant, medical gastroenterologist and hepatologist, says, ”Contents in Triphala constitute good fibre: hence, using it for constipation, which also decreases appetite, is acceptable and a proven mode of treatment. Triphala helps in relieving constipation, and, consequently, appetite increases.”